Women in politics
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The CDU women were combative when they demanded at the 1995 party convention: One third of the party offices and public mandates should be filled with women. They enforced their claim a year later, but reached with the so-called women's quorum only a requirement. More than 20 years later, the Women's Union wanted to take the next step. The requirement, which is not always adhered to in the party and overall rather understood as an upper limit, should be transformed into a binding quota.
Annette Widmann-Mauz, the head of the Women's Union, submitted an application for the federal party convention four weeks ago. At the meeting in Leipzig, the party should vote on whether it would like to promote women in their party more, if they would like to motivate them with a staff development program to opt for one of the political offices, which still predominantly occupied by men in the CDU become. Now it looks like it would not come to this vote.
The CDU leadership wants to postpone the application for the coming year, a commission should make him and make concrete recommendations. But does it really need a commission to check something that already exists? A requirement that has been implemented for more than 20 years? Hardly likely.
"I am a quota woman"
The obvious reason for the hesitation is just the woman to whom the women union had set: party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. This had to thank her boss for much of the women's lobby of her party. She had promised a discussion on the important issue, calling it a failure, if the Union failed to send more women to the Bundestag. She proudly said, "I am a quota woman."
Now Kramp-Karrenbauer is just so weakened in her leadership position that apparently no further defeat can be expected of her. But a rejection of the women's quota is considered safe in the party leadership.
How harsh such a rejection can be, has recently shown the CSU party congress: The Women's Union of the sister party demanded a quota of 40 percent, this attack was crashed. Party members held fiery speeches against the quota, CSU women stressed that they wanted to be elected because of their qualifications, not because of their gender.
Even with the CDU, men and women now speak up against a quota. How are we supposed to occupy 33 percent of party offices and women's electoral lists when only 26 percent of party members are female? This is one of the most frequently asked questions on the subject.
It might help to convert those percentages into people. In Thuringia last 88 candidates of the CDU were ready for election to the state parliament, 44 of which were direct candidates. If the 33% demanded by the Women's Union is converted into living women, then this is about 26. The Thuringian CDU hired 31 by the way. It did not seem that hard.
This calculation example shows not only that the CDU is well able to find enough women to run for office. It also shows that the quoted lists alone are not enough to put women in political office to work for parity, the declared goal of the Women's Union. Because of 21 mandates went in Thuringia in the end, only two to women - although 33 percent of the candidates were female and although the first twenty places on the electoral list were quoted.
The reason for this is that the quota does not apply to direct mandates - and the CDU wins especially constituencies directly. However, this sobering result also shows what happens when there are no quotas: in the intra-party polls, virtually no women are elected - even if there are many to vote for.
What the women's union demands is not much at all under this point of view. But if not even a minimum demand of 33 percent in the People's Party CDU can be openly debated and fought, then the party only shows how far it is from being modern. And how little does she represent the female 50 percent of the people whose party she wants to be.
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